UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BEFORE THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD

ROUNDY’S INC., )

)

and ) Case No. 30-CA-17185

)

MILWAUKEE BUILDING AND )

CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL, AFL-CIO )

________________________________________________)

BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE

COALITION FOR A DEMOCRATIC WORKPLACE

IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENT

[SIGNATORY MEMBERS OF THE COALITION LISTED INSIDE COVER]

Maurice Baskin, Esq.

Venable LLP

575 7th

St., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20004

Attorneys for Amicus Curiae

January 7, 2011

LIST OF AMICI JOINING THIS BRIEF

57 National Associations

Aeronautical Repair Station Association

American Apparel & Footwear Association

American Fire Sprinkler Association

American Foundry Society

American Health Care Association

American Hotel and Lodging Association

American Meat Institute

American Pipeline Contractors Association

American Rental Association

American Seniors Housing Association

American Trucking Association

Assisted Living Federation of America

Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.*

Associated Equipment Distributors

Associated General Contractors of America

Association of Equipment Manufacturers

Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association

Brick Industry Association

Cement Employers Association

Center for Individual Freedom

College and University Professional Association for Human

Resources

Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association

Food Marketing Institute

Healthcare Distribution Management Association

Independent Electrical Contractors, Inc.

International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions

International Council of Shopping Centers

International Foodservice Distributors Association*

International Franchise Association

International Warehouse Logistics Association

Heating, Airconditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International

Metals Service Center Institute

National Apartment Association

National Association of Chemical Distributors

National Association of Manufacturers

National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors

National Center for Assisted Living

National Council of Chain Restaurants

National Council of Textile Organizations

National Federation of Independent Business*

National Franchisee Association

ii

National Grocers Association

National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association

National Mining Association

National Multi Housing Council

National Ready Mixed Concrete Association

National Restaurant Association

National Retail Federation

National Small Business Association

National Solid Wastes Management Association

National Systems Contractors Association

National Utility Contractors Association

North American Die Casting Association

Retail Industry Leaders Association*

Petroleum Marketers Association of America

Professional Beauty Association

Snack Food Association

138 State and Local Associations

American Rental Association of Connecticut

American Rental Association of Massachusetts

Arizona Builders’ Alliance

Arizona Restaurant Association

Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce

Associated Builders and Contractors Delaware Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Inland Pacific Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Heart of America Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Keystone Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Nevada chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors of Georgia

Associated Builders and Contractors of Greater Houston

Associated Builders and Contractors of Kentuckiana, Inc.

Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan

Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington

Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, Inc.

Associated Builders and Contractors Ohio Valley Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Rhode Island Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Rocky Mountain Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors South Texas Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Virginia Chapter

Associated Builders and Contractors Western Michigan Chapter

Associated Industries of Arkansas, Inc.

Associated Industries of Florida

Associated Industries of Massachusetts

Association of Washington Business

iii

California Delivery Association

California/Nevada/Arizona Automotive Wholesalers Association

California Restaurant Association

Capital Associated Industries, Inc, Raleigh and Greensboro NC

CenTex Chapter IEC

Central Alabama Chapter IEC

Central Indiana IEC

Central Missouri IEC

Central Ohio AEC/IEC

Central Pennsylvania Chapter IEC

Central Washington IEC

Centre County IEC

Colorado Restaurant Association

Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce

Eastern Washington Chapter, IEC

Florida Independent Concrete and Associated Products Association

Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association

Foundry Association of Michigan

Georgia Restaurant Association

Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

Greater Medina Chamber of Commerce, Medina Ohio

Greater Montana IEC

Hawaii Restaurant Association

IEC Atlanta Chapter

IEC Chesapeake

IEC Dakotas, Inc.

IEC Dallas Chapter

IEC Florida West Coast

IEC Fort Worth/Tarrant County

IEC Georgia Chapter

IEC Greater St. Louis

IEC Hampton Roads Chapter

IEC National

IEC NCAEC

IEC New England

IEC of Arkansas

IEC of East Texas

IEC of Greater Cincinnati

IEC of Idaho

IEC of Illinois

IEC of Kansas City

IEC of Northwest Pennsylvania

IEC of Oregon

IEC of Southeast Missouri

IEC of Texoma

IEC of the Bluegrass

iv

IEC of the Texas Panhandle

IEC of Utah

IEC Southern Arizona

IEC Southern Colorado Chapter

IEC Southern Indiana Chapter-Evansville

IEC Texas Gulf Coast Chapter

IEC Western Reserve Chapter

IEC, Inc. El Paso Chapter

IEC, Inc. Lubbock Chapter

IEC, Inc. San Antonio Chapter

IECA Kentucky & S Indiana Chapter

IECA of Arizona

IECA of Nashville

IECA of Southern California, Inc.

IEC-OKC, Inc.

Indiana Cast Metals Association

Indiana Restaurant Association

Iowa Association of Business and Industry

Iowa Restaurant Association

Kansas Chamber of Commerce

Kansas Restaurant & Hospitality Association

Kentucky Restaurant Association

Louisiana Restaurant Association

Maine Restaurant Association

Management Association of Illinois

MEC IEC of Dayton

Michigan Restaurant Association

Mid-Oregon Chapter IEC

Mid-South Chapter IEC

Midwest IEC

Mississippi Hospitality & Restaurant Association

Montana IEC

Montana Restaurant Association

Nebraska Restaurant Association

Nevada Manufacturers Association

Nevada Restaurant Association

New England IEC

New Jersey IEC

New Jersey Motor Truck Association

Northern New Mexico IEC

NW Washington IEC

Ohio Cast Metals Association

Ohio Restaurant Association

Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association

Pennsylvania Foundry Association

Pennsylvania Restaurant Association

v

Puget Sound Washington Chapter

Rhode Island Hospitality Association

Rio Grande Valley IEC, Inc.

Rocky Mountain Chapter IEC

Rogers Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, Rogers, AR

South Carolina Hospitality Association

South Dakota Retailers Association

Southern New Mexico IEC

Texas Cast Metal Association

Texas Restaurant Association

Texas State IEC

Tri State IEC

Utah Restaurant Association

Virginia Manufacturers Association

Western Colorado IEC

West Virginia Chamber

Wichita Chapter IEC

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce

Wisconsin Cast Metals Association

Wisconsin Restaurant Association

* Organizations marked with an asterisk above have filed separate amicus briefs in this case.

They also have joined this brief as members of the Coalition and support the arguments

herein.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES…………………………………………………………….vii

INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE………………………………………………………1

ISSUES PRESENTED…………………………………………………………….............1

ARGUMENT…………………………………………………………………………........3

I. Overwhelming Judicial Authority Has Rejected The Board’s Holding in Sandusky Mall, And That Decision Should Now Be

Overruled By the Board……………………………………………………….3

II. The Board Should Hold That Employers Are Not Required To Allow Nonemployee Union Agents To Trespass On Private Property

For The Purpose Of Harming The Employer’s Business Under Any

Circumstances. Alternatively, the Board Should Adopt The

“Discrimination” Standard Articulated By The Dissenters In

Sandusky Mall……….………………………………………………………….8

III. The Board’s Holding In Register Guard Supports The Adoption Of A New Standard in Consumer Boycott Nonemployee Access Cases……….11

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………….13

vii

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES

Cases

Be-Lo Stores v. NLRB, 126 F. 3d 268 (4th

Cir. 1997)........................................................... 4, 7, 10

Cleveland Real Estate Partners v. NLRB, 95 F. 3d 457 (6th

Cir. 1996) ............................... 4, 6, 13

Fleming Co. v. NLRB, 349 F. 3d 968 (7th

Cir. 2003). ............................................................... 9, 13

Guardian Industries Corp. v. NLRB, 49 F. 3d 317 (7th

Cir. 1995), denying in part 313 NLRB

1275 (1994), .......................................................................................................................... 9, 13

Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB, 502 U.S. 527, 535 (1992) ......................................................... 3, 4, 7, 14

Lloyd Corp. Ltd v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551 (1972).......................................................................... 10

NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox, 351 U.S. 105 (1956) ............................................................. 3, 5, 7, 9

NLRB v. Pay-Less Drug Stores Northwest, Inc., 1995 WL 323832 (unpub.) (9th

Cir. 1995)..... 4, 6

Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980)........................................................ 10

Register Guard, 351 NLRB 1110 (2007), enf den in part 571 F. 3d 53 (D.C. Cir. 2009), ... passim

Riesbeck Food Markets v. NLRB, 1996 WL 405224 (4th

Cir. 1995) .......................................... 4, 7

Salmon Run Shopping Center LLC v. NLRB, 534 F. 3d 108 (2d Cir. 2008) .............................. 4, 8

Sandusky Mall Co., 329 NLRB 618, 623 (1999), enf. den., 242 F. 3d 682 (6th

Cir. 2001). .. passim

Sears Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego County District Council of Carpenters, 436 U.S. 180 (1978)

............................................................................................................................................... 7, 10

1

INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (the “Coalition”) is an amalgam of

hundreds of employer associations and other organizations. The membership of the Coalition

represents millions of businesses of all sizes from every industry sector in every region of the

country. Many of the diverse employers represented by the Coalition, particularly those in

the construction, retail, and hospitality industries, have had significant experience with union

boycotts, including union efforts to engage in consumer boycott handbilling on employers’

private property.

The primary interest of the Coalition in this case is to preserve the legitimate

private property rights of employers, as they have been recognized and upheld by the United

States Supreme Court and numerous courts of appeals. These rights have been threatened by

past NLRB decisions that have improperly upheld union demands of access to employers’

private property for the purpose of engaging in harmful consumer boycott activity against

such employers, as occurred in Sandusky Mall Co., 329 NLRB 618, 623 (1999), enf. den.,

242 F. 3d 682 (6th

Cir. 2001).

The Coalition welcomes the Board’s invitation of amicus briefs for the purpose of

revisiting the holding of Sandusky Mall and related cases. In accordance with the

overwhelming weight of judicial authority, as further discussed below, the Board should

overrule its decision in Sandusky Mall and should allow employers to refuse nonemployee

union access to private property, particularly where such labor organizations seek to engage

in harmful boycott activities.

2

ISSUES PRESENTED

On November 12, 2010, the Board issued an order inviting interested amici to file briefs

on the following questions:

1. In cases alleging unlawful employer discrimination in nonemployee access, should the Board

continue to apply the standard articulated by the Board majority in Sandusky Mall Co., 329

NLRB 618, 623 (1999), enf. den. 242 F. 3d 682 (6th

Cir. 2001)?

2. If not, what standard should the Board adopt to define discrimination in this context?

3. What bearing, if any, does Register Guard, 351 NLRB 1110 (2007), enf den in part 571 F. 3d

53 (D.C. Cir. 2009), have on the Board’s standard for finding unlawful discrimination in

nonemployee access cases?

As further explained below, the Coalition answers the above questions as follows:

1. The Board should not continue to apply the standard of Sandusky Mall, which has been

repeatedly denied enforcement in the courts over the past decade.

2. Instead, the Board should hold that employers are not required to allow nonemployee union

agents to trespass on private property for the purpose of harming the employer’s business

through consumer boycotts under any circumstances. Alternatively, the Board should adopt

the standard defining discrimination articulated by the dissenters in Sandusky Mall, i.e.,

employers should not be required to allow nonemployee union agents access to private

property for the purpose of harming the employer’s business, unless the employer permits

such access to non-labor organizations for similarly harmful purposes.

3. The Register Guard decision, which did not involve a nonemployee consumer boycott of an

employer on the employer’s private property, nevertheless supports the adoption of a new

3

standard in the present case. The Board in Register Guard recognized that some greater

measure of comparability was required to determine whether discrimination has occurred,

even in the context of employee solicitations in the workplace. Given that nonemployee

unions engaged in consumer boycotts have much weaker (or nonexistent) claims to Section 7

protections than do employees engaged in union organizing, it is anomalous for the Board to

apply a more demanding standard for discrimination in the present context. Any new

standard that is adopted should be consistent with Register Guard.

ARGUMENT

I. Overwhelming Judicial Authority Has Rejected The Board’s Analysis in Sandusky Mall, And That Decision Should Now Be Overruled By the Board.

In Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB, 502 U.S. 527, 535 (1992), the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed

its ruling in NLRB v. Babcock & Wilcox, 351 U.S. 105 (1956), to the effect that “an employer

may validly post his property against nonemployee distribution of union literature.” The

Lechmere Court further held as follows:

While Babcock indicates that an employer may not always bar nonemployee

union organizers from his property, his right to do so remains the general Rule.

To gain access, the union has the burden of showing that no other reasonable

means of communicating its organizational message to the employees exists or

that the employer’s access rules discriminate against union solicitation. That the

burden imposed on the union is a heavy one is evidenced by the fact that the

balance struck by the Board and the courts under the Babcock

accommodation principle has rarely been in favor of trespassory

organizational activity.

502 U.S. at 535. (emphasis supplied).

Regrettably, in the years following Lechmere, the Board has issued a series of decisions

that have failed to give proper deference to the holdings of the Supreme Court and have infringed

on the private property rights of employers. This is particularly true with regard to the Board’s

4

test for unlawful “discrimination” in the context of nonemployee unions seeking access to

employers’ private property for the purpose of publicizing consumer boycotts against the

employers or their tenants. Numerous courts of appeals have denied enforcement of the Board’s

findings of unlawful employer discrimination in such cases as NLRB v. Pay-Less Drug Stores

Northwest, Inc., 1995 WL 323832 (unpub.) (9th

Cir. 1995); Cleveland Real Estate Partners v.

NLRB, 95 F. 3d 457 (6th

Cir. 1996); Riesbeck Food Markets v. NLRB, 1996 WL 405224 (4th

Cir.

1996); Be-Lo Stores v. NLRB, 126 F. 3d 268 (4th

Cir. 1997); Sandusky Mall Co. v. NLRB, 242 F.

3d 682 (6th

Cir. 2001); and Salmon Run Shopping Center LLC v. NLRB, 534 F. 3d 108 (2d Cir.

2008). In each of the above cited cases, the courts found that the Board improperly declared

employers to have “discriminated” against union solicitation on private property merely because

the employers permitted beneficent solicitation by other organizations, while refusing union

access for consumer boycotting that was plainly harmful to the employers’ business objectives.

The Sandusky case, the focal point of the Board’s present Order requesting amicus briefs,

is both typical and instructive regarding the disconnect between the Board and the courts on the

issue of “discrimination.” The owner of the Sandusky Mall allowed charitable, civic and other

organizations to solicit on its premises, in accordance with a stated policy of permitting such

solicitation only where it benefited the business interest or good will of the mall or its tenants

and did not create controversy or political divisiveness. See 329 NLRB 618, at 619. At the same

time, the owner refused to allow the Carpenters Union to distribute handbills on mall property,

because the union handbills advocated a public boycott of a mall tenant for using a nonunion

contractor on a construction project. Id.

The Board decision in Sandusky declared that the mall owner’s allowance of anything

more than isolated charitable solicitors on its private property constituted prohibited

5

discrimination within the meaning of Lechmere and Babcock & Wilcox. 329 NLRB at 621.

Members Brame and Hurtgen dissented. Member Brame declared that a finding of

discriminatory conduct should only be made “among comparable groups or activities.” Id. at

626. He elaborated as follows:

[T]he Board must ask what is the nature of the conduct for which access is sought

and what effect would this type of conduct reasonably be expected to have?

Certainly, employers must be able to make distinctions based on the time, place,

and means of solicitation to the extent that mall business may be negatively

affected by one and not another. For example, outside solicitors from an

organization sitting quietly at a table in a remote section of the mall would likely

have a far different impact than if they were distributing handbills while roaming

the common areas or picketing within the mall.

329 NLRB at 628, quoted approvingly in Sandusky Mall Co. v. NLRB, 242 F. 3d 682 (6th

Cir.

2001).

Member Hurtgen added that messages in support of a boycott are qualitatively different

from other solicitation that does not have a boycott message. Therefore, it cannot be

“discrimination” to prohibit boycott messages by a union on private property when the owner of

the property would have forbidden boycott activity on its property by anyone, whether it was a

union or not, due to the obvious detrimental effect of such activity on the owner’s business,

“irrespective of the identity of the boycotter.” 329 NLRB at 623.

The Sixth Circuit agreed with the dissenting Board members, and with its own prior

decision in Cleveland Real Estate Partners v. NLRB, supra, 95 F. 3d at 457. The court therefore

denied enforcement of the Board’s order in Sandusky Mall v. NLRB, supra, 242 F. 3d 682. The

court of appeals reaffirmed that nonemployee union agents engaged in a consumer boycott of an

employer have no right to engage in handbilling on the employer’s private property, where such

union conduct is not similar to the harmless or even beneficial solicitation activities of civil and

charitable organizations who the employer has permitted to use its property.

6

The Sixth Circuit’s holding was consistent with that of the Ninth Circuit in NLRB v. Pay

Less Drug Stores Northwest, Inc., supra, 1995 WL 323832, *1. There, the Ninth Circuit held that

“a business should be free to allow local charitable and community organizations to use its

premises, whether for purely altruistic reasons or as a means of cultivating good will, without

thereby being compelled to allow the use of those same premises by an organization that seeks to

harm that business.” In Pay Less, the Board had found discrimination because the employer had

allowed solicitations on its private property by a bloodmobile, the girl scouts, a school group,

and a classic car club. None of these other organizations attempted to harm the business of the

employer or its tenants.

Likewise, the Fourth Circuit in Riesbeck Food Markets v. NLRB, supra, 1996 WL

405224, at *1, found that discrimination claims under Lechmere and Babcock & Wilcox require a

finding that an employer has treated similar conduct differently. The court held that “an

employer must have some degree of control over the messages it conveys to its customers on its

private property,” and to distinguish between a message (the union’s) that directly undermines

the owner’s purpose of selling goods and services as opposed to a message (the charitable

organizations’) that encourages business activity.

In its subsequent decision in Be-Lo Stores v. NLRB, 126 F. 3d 268 (4th

Cir. 1997), the

Fourth Circuit cast doubt on whether the Babcock discrimination exception should apply to

economic protesters at all.1 The court noted that nonemployee access claims to an employer’s

private property “are at their nadir when the nonemployees wish to engage in protest or

1 “[W]e seriously doubt, as do our colleagues in other circuits, that the Babcock & Wilcox disparate treatment

exception, post-Lechmere, applies to nonemployees who do not propose to engage in organizational activities ….”

126 F. 3d at 284. See also Sears Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego County District Council of Carpenters, 436 U.S. 180,

206, n. 42 (1978) (“Area standards picketing … has no … vital link to the employees located on the employer’s

property.”).

7

economic activities,” as opposed to organizational activities. Id. at 284. The Fourth Circuit

nevertheless agreed with the Sixth Circuit’s analysis in Cleveland Real Estate Partners,

subsequently reaffirmed in Sandusky Mall, holding that “no relevant labor policies are advanced

by prohibiting an employer from allowing charitable solicitations if it excludes nonemployee

union distributions.”

Most recently, in Salmon Run Shopping Center LLC v. NLRB, supra, 534 F. 3d at 108,

the Second Circuit again denied enforcement of the Board’s continued insistence on finding

unlawful discrimination without regard to the comparability between prohibited union consumer

boycott activity and permitted beneficent activities of other groups. As in the cases previously

cited, the union in Salmon Run did not seek to communicate with the employer’s employees but

with the “general public.” The court therefore held that “the content and context of the proposed

literature distribution approaches the unprotected end of the spectrum.” Agreeing with the

analysis of other circuit courts, the Second Circuit reaffirmed that “the focus of the

discrimination analysis under Section 7 of the Act must be upon disparate treatment of two like

persons or groups.” As the court further held:

To amount to Babcock-type discrimination, the private property owner must treat

a nonemployee who seeks to communicate on a subject protected by section 7 less

favorably than another person communicating on the same subject. The disparate

treatment must be shown between or among those who have chosen to enter the

fray by communicating messages on the subject, whether employers or

employees. * * * The solicitation of Muscular Dystrophy donations by firefighters

or the distribution of educational promotional materials on Higher Ed Night do

not serve as valid comparisons to the Carpenters’ Union distribution of literature

touting the benefits of its apprenticeship programs or decrying the failure of a

mall tenant to pay area standard wages.

Ibid.

8

In the face of such overwhelming judicial rejection of the Board’s analysis in Sandusky

Mall,2 it is well past time for the Board to change its overbroad view of “discrimination,” at least

in the context of consumer boycotts of employers by nonemployee union agents demanding

access to private property. Therefore, in response to the Board’s first question in its invitation for

amicus briefs in the present case (“should the Board continue to apply the standard articulated by

the Board majority in Sandusky Mall?”), the answer must be an emphatic “no.”

II. The Board Should Hold That Employers Are Not Required To Allow Nonemployee Union Agents To Trespass On Private Property For The

Purpose Of Harming The Employer’s Business Under Any Circumstances.

Alternatively, the Board Should Adopt The “Discrimination” Standard

Articulated By The Dissenters In Sandusky Mall.

In response to the Board’s second question to amici (“What standard should the Board

adopt to define discrimination in this context?”), the answer is that the Board should stop

requiring employers to allow nonemployee union agents to trespass on private property for the

purpose of harming the employer’s business, under any circumstances. In other words, the

Board should acknowledge that the discrimination exception to private property rights described

in Babcock & Wilcox and Lechmere is limited to employee organizing efforts, and has no

application to activities such as consumer boycotts, whose purpose and effect is to harm an

employer’s business. In this narrow context, as noted by the courts, the access claims of labor

organizations are “at their nadir.” Be-Lo Stores v. NLRB, supra, 126 F. 3d at 284. See also Sears

Roebuck & Co. v. San Diego County Carpenters District Council, supra, 436 U.S. at 206, n. 42.

2 See also Guardian Industries Corp. v. NLRB, 49 F. 3d 317 (7

th Cir. 1995), denying in part 313 NLRB 1275 (1994),

rejecting the Board’s overbroad discrimination test, even in the context of employee organizing. The Seventh Circuit

observed: “Discrimination is a form of inequality, which poses the question: ‘equal with respect to what?’ * * * A

rule distinguishing pro-union organization from anti-union organization would be disparate treatment. A rule

banning all organizational notices … is impossible to understand as disparate treatment of unions.” Accord, Fleming

Co. v. NLRB, 349 F. 3d 968 (7th

Cir. 2003).

9

Moreover, continued Board action that forces an employer to give up its private property

to an outside organization for a use that is plainly harmful to the employer’s business may

constitute a “taking” within the meaning of the U.S. Constitution, requiring just compensation to

the employer. The Supreme Court so held in Lloyd Corp. Ltd v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 569

(1972).3

To the extent that the Board still believes that Babcock’s discrimination standard has

continuing relevance in the context of nonemployee consumer boycotts, then at a minimum the

Board should narrow its definition of “discrimination” in a manner consistent with the

overwhelming weight of judicial authority discussed above. Towards this end, the Board should

acknowledge that the only unlawful form of discrimination in the current context is that which

permits comparable activity to be engaged in by other organizations. As the courts have made

clear, groups that are engaged in beneficent activities are obviously not comparable to unions

engaged in consumer boycotts. Therefore, employers who allow beneficent activities by other

groups do not discriminate when they prohibit harmful activities by unions on the employers’

private property.

The dissents of Members Brame and Hurtgen in Sandusky Mall, supra, 329 NLRB at 623

and 624, discussed above at p. 4-5, set forth appropriate standards for discrimination which the

Board should now adopt. Thus, the Board should accept Member Hurtgen’s finding that

employers are entitled to make judgments as to whether nonemployee union activity is consistent

with the commercial and retail purposes of the property to which access is sought. The Board

3 In responding to this contention in the Sandusky Mall opinion, the Board majority incorrectly relied on the

Supreme Court’s decision in Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74, 83 (1980). Though the Court did

not find a taking to have occurred on the particular facts of Pruneyard, those facts included the “clear” finding that

the property owner could “restrict expressive activity by adopting time, place, and manner regulations that will

minimize any interference with its commercial functions.” By forcing employers to permit union interference with

commercial functions by advocating consumer boycotts on employers’ own private property, the Board’s continued

adherence to its Sandusky Mall holding threatens to violate the Takings Clause.

10

should further declare now, as Member Hurtgen did then, that employers may permissibly take

into consideration whether nonemployee union activity on private property conflicts with the

business of the employer or tenant, and whether the activity concerns or likely creates a dispute,

controversy, or politically divisive issue. See 329 NLRB at 623.

Member Brame’s multi-part analysis in Sandusky Mall is to the same effect: With regard

to nonemployee solicitors, his analysis would require the Board to ask the relationship of the

solicitation to the business of the employer, the likely effect of the solicitation on the employer’s

customers and/or tenants, and the nature of the conduct for which access is sought. Ultimately, as

summarized by Member Brame, “[E]mployers must be able to make distinctions based on the

time, place, and means of solicitation to the extent that … business may be negatively affected

by one and not another.” Id at 628.

The subsequent judicial formulations described above are not substantively different from

either the Hurtgen or Brame formulation. What they all have in common is the recognition that

comparability of the types of conduct at issue is crucial to a finding of discrimination. Any new

Board standard of discrimination must take this factor into account.

Application of the proposed new standard to the present case involving Roundy’s should

result in a finding that the Respondent’s refusal of access to nonemployee union agents was

entirely permissible. The union handbills asked consumers not to patronize Roundy’s and urged

shoppers to go to competitor stores due to Respondent’s contracting with non-union construction

contractors. None of the other solicitors who Roundy’s permitted at its stores engaged in

11

comparably harmful activity, i.e., none of them urged shoppers to take their business elsewhere.4

Thus, under any appropriate new standard adopted by the Board, there should be no finding of

discrimination in the present case.

III. The Board’s Holding In Register Guard Supports The Adoption Of A New Standard in Consumer Boycott Nonemployee Access Cases.

The final question on which the Board has asked for comment from amici is what

bearing, if any, the Board’s Register Guard decision has on the Board’s standard for finding

unlawful discrimination in nonemployee access cases. The answer to this question is that

Register Guard plainly supports the adoption of the proposed new standard for consumer boycott

nonemployee access cases.

Of course, the facts of Register Guard dealt solely with employee organizing, not

consumer boycotts on private property by nonemployee union agents. See 351 NLRB 1111-

1114. It is nevertheless significant that the Board held in that case that “unlawful discrimination

consists of disparate treatment of activities or communications of a similar character because of

their union or other Section 7-protected status….” Id. at 1119.5 The Board extensively relied on

the Seventh Circuit’s analysis in Guardian Industries v. NLRB, supra, 49 F. 3d at 317, and

4 The Administrative Law Judge suggested that solicitation engaged in by an environmental group and/or a

politician might have “offended some of Respondent’s customers,” creating an arguable distinction from the holding

of Sandusky Mall. It is undisputed, however, that no other solicitor permitted on Roundy’s property advocated a

consumer boycott of the store. The activities that the Respondent chose to permit were thus in no way comparable to

the union activity which posed a direct threat to the Respondent’s business.

5 As the Board further elaborated in Register Guard: “[I]n order to be unlawful, discrimination must be along

Section 7 lines. * * * However, nothing in the Act prohibits an employer from drawing lines on a non-Section 7

basis. That is, an employer may draw a line between charitable solicitations and non-charitable solicitations,

between solicitations of a personal nature (e.g., a car for sale) and solicitations for the commercial sale of a product

(e.g., Avon products), between invitations for an organization and invitations of a personal nature, between

solicitations and mere talk, and between business-related use and non business-related use. In each of these

examples, the fact that union solicitation would fall on the prohibited side of the line does not establish the rule

discriminates along Section 7 lines.” 351 NLRB at 1118.

12

Fleming Co., supra, 349 F. 3d at 968, for the proposition that “the concept of discrimination

involves the unequal treatment of equals.” Register Guard, 351 NLRB at 1117. The Guardian

Industries decision in turn was cited favorably in the Sixth Circuit’s decisions in Sandusky Mall

v. NLRB, supra, and Cleveland Real Estate Partners v. NLRB, supra, thereby indicating that the

Board’s holding in Register Guard is consistent with the court rulings that compel adoption of a

new Board standard for discrimination in the context of nonemployee customer boycotts.6

Absent adoption of a new standard for discrimination in the context of nonemployee

consumer boycotts, including adoption of a standard that is at least as narrow as the Board’s

Register Guard standard, the state of current Board law will be anomalous. The Board will be

awarding greater rights of access to nonemployees engaged in consumer boycott activity than it

awards to employees seeking to use employer property (such as computers) for organizational

purposes. Such a result would be completely antithetical to the settled principle announced in

Lechmere and subsequent cases, i.e., that nonemployee rights of access to private property are

derivative of and weaker than the rights of employees.7

The proper means of resolving the present anomaly is certainly not to overrule or weaken

the holding of Register Guard, which was properly decided. Rather, for the reasons stated by the

numerous court decisions that have overwhelmingly rejected the Board’s Sandusky Mall analysis

for more than a decade before Register Guard was even decided, the Board must change its

discrimination standard in the nonemployee union context to make it more consistent with

Register Guard.

6 The Board opinion in Register Guard stated that its view of discrimination is “broader” than that of the court in

Cleveland Real Estate Partners v. NLRB. 351 NLRB at 1119, n. 21. If so, the difference is slight, and in any event,

as discussed above, consumer boycott activity by nonemployees is entitled to less Section 7 protection than

organizational activity by employees of the sort described in Register Guard.

7 “By its plain terms, … the NLRA confers rights only on employees, not on unions or their nonemployee

organizers.” Lechmere, supra, 502 U.S. at 532.

13

Conclusion

For the reasons set forth above, the Board should abandon and overrule its holding in

Sandusky Mall. The Board should adopt a new standard which recognizes that no employer

should be required to give private property access rights to a nonemployee labor organization for

the purpose of engaging in activities, such as consumer boycott handbilling, which are plainly

harmful to the business of the owner of the property.

Respectfully submitted,

Maurice Baskin

Maurice Baskin

Venable LLP

575 7th

St., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20004

202-344-4823

202-344-8300

mbaskin@venable.com

January 7, 2011 Attorneys for the Coalition as

Amicus Curiae

14

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that the undersigned has filed this brief electronically with the Board and

is therefore serving the following parties electronically in accordance with Section 102.114 of

the Board’s Rules, this 7th

day of January, 2011:

Andrew Gollin, Esq.

National Labor Relations Board

310 West Wisconsin Ave.

Suite 700

Milwaukee, WI 53203

Andrew.gollin@nlrb.gov

Attorney for the General Counsel

Scott A. Gore, Esq.

Laner, Muchin, Dombrow, Becker, Levin & Tominberg, Ltd.

515 North State Street, Suite 2800

Chicago, IL 60610

sgore@lanermuchin.com

Attorney for the Respondent

Yingtao Ho, Esq.

Previant, Goldberg, Uelman, Gratz, Miller & Brueggeman

1555 N. RiverCenter Dr., Suite 202

Milwaukee, WI 53212

yh@previant.com

Attorney for the Charging Party

Maurice Baskin

_______________________________________